Friends, family hopeful that Huntsville native will be released soon from Pakistani prison

The opening page of a letter from Matthew Barrett to the news media. (Courtesy WHNT News 19)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - The grandfather of a Huntsville native imprisoned in Pakistan on spying charges believes his grandson will be released, even though a hearing on his case was abruptly delayed Tuesday. "We're encouraged that he will get released when his sentence is up," Donald A. Barrett of Huntsville said Tuesday of his grandson Matthew Barrett.

That could be in October, Matthew Barrett's Pakistani wife said in an email to The Huntsville Times after the hearing was delayed until Sept. 19. That happened, she said, because "the government didn't bring the records" to court. Binosche Barrett said her husband has been beaten in prison and the family's car license number and home address have been published in major Pakistani newspapers.

Barrett's friends in Huntsville say it is "ridiculous" to think he is an American spy. Instead, they describe Matthew Barrett as a global rambler who would still be traveling if he hadn't met and married Binosche Barrett and fathered two children.

Barrett, 27, was imprisoned in June after being found in his car in May near a restricted area near a Pakistani nuclear facility. Barrett got lost while traveling to obtain parts for his car, his wife said. His story was first reported locally Monday on WHNT News 19.

"He on the way took a wrong turn and got lost," Binosche Barrett wrote The Times Tuesday. "He reached a signboard 'no foreigners' and called me. I told him not to go there and get someone to guide you. There was a barrier ahead so he called the guard to guide him."

Binosche Barrett said she spoke to the guard herself via telephone "and he assured me they will guide him back to his (destination) and that he is their guest. Sometime later they switched his cell off and I was alarmed."

Barrett was eventually released, but his wife said police stormed the family home in Islamabad in June and took him back into custody. Barrett has been in prison in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, since then.

Binosche Barrett said officials on July 20 issued a "three months detention order" holding her husband. That would mean he could be released Oct. 20. Discussion on Pakistani websites has speculated that Barrett was spying for America, but friends in Huntsville say that's impossible.

"That's preposterous, ridiculous," Rachel Williams said Tuesday. She met Barrett, a friend of her husband's, while all three were in high school in Huntsville. Williams said Barrett graduated from Huntsville High School in 2003.

Barrett left home shortly after high school and hasn't returned often, his grandfather said. When he did return, Rachel Williams said, he stayed at her home. The two spoke frequently by phone, and Williams has maintained a Facebook connection to Barrett's wife.

Both Williams and Barrett's grandfather describe Barrett as a world traveler. Williams said he went to places such as Amsterdam and Thailand using money from what Williams called "a trust fund" established after his parents' death.

Matthew and his older brother, Andrew, survived a Madison County car wreck that killed both of their parents when they were young children. Their grandparents, Donald Barrett and his wife Irma, raised the boys after their parents died.

Barrett met his wife while traveling in Pakistan and returned to that country to marry her, Williams said. "If he hadn't met her, he wouldn't be there now," Williams said. "He'd be traveling somewhere else."

Binosche Barrett said her husband has been trying to get the family out of Pakistan since they married in December 2007. Frustrated by delays in obtaining a U.S. visa for her, Binosche Barrett said the family decided to flee to the European Union overland through Iran.

Matthew Barrett had a "caravan," or trailer, built to tow behind his car for the journey, his wife wrote, and it was while seeking parts to complete the rig that he was first taken into custody.

Barrett's grandfather said he has been "in contact with the State Department pretty much constantly," since his grandson's arrest in Pakistan.

"I know the embassy over there has had contact with him," Donald Barrett said. Barrett declined to comment further on his grandson or the situation leading to his arrest.

"We really have nothing to say," he said. "We're in contact with the State Department, and I don't want to do anything to jeopardize the work they are doing."

Williams said she is worried for her longtime friend's safety, but she said Barrett is tough. "We know that Matt has the street smarts enough to handle himself," she said. "We want to believe he'll come back OK."

Note: This story was co-written by Huntsville Times staff writer Pat Ammons